184 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



and merchants ; and above all, from editors. Intelli- 

 gent people who ignore this cause fall short of their 

 duty to humanity and to themselves. The universi- 

 ties and colleges, the high schools and the normal 

 schools, all have it in their power to exert an enor- 

 mous influence in this cause. Think what it would 

 mean if 30 per cent of the annual graduates of all 

 American institutions of learning should go forth 

 well informed on the details of this work, and fully 

 resolved to spread the doctrine of conservation, 

 far and near! And think, also, what it would 

 mean if even one-half the men and women who earn 

 their daily bread in the field of zoology and nature- 

 study should elect to make this cause their own! 

 And yet, I tell you that in spite of an appeal for 

 help, dating as far back as 1898, fully 90 per cent 

 of the zoologists of America stick closely to their 

 desk-work, soaring after the infinite and diving 

 after the unfathomable, but never spending a dollar 

 or lifting an active finger on the firing-line in 

 defense of wild life. I have talked to these men 

 until I am tired; and the most of them seem to be 

 hopelessly sodden and apathetic. 



While this is equally true of educators at large, 

 the fact is they are far less to blame for present con- 

 ditions than are many American zoologists. The 

 latter have upon them obligations such as no man 

 can escape without being shamefully derelict. 

 Fancy an ornithologist studying feather arrange- 

 ment, or avian osteology, or the distribution of sub- 



